City Won't Cut Pines From Rules

KISSIMMEE — Let it be known that in Kissimmee, a pine tree is equal to all other trees, even the mighty oak.

In a workshop Tuesday, city commissioners discussed, but quickly rejected, suggestions to remove pines from a proposed tree-protection ordinance.

Commissioner Ken Maher said the pines are so numerous that to grant them the same protection as other trees would stand in the way of development. He estimated that two-thirds of the trees on undeveloped land are pines.

''When you make ordinances that are impossible, it sets them up to be broken,'' he said. ''This one's really going to come back to bite you.''

Maher also argued that pine trees are more sensitive than other trees and can be killed by heavy construction equipment rolling over the ground above their root systems.

But Elizabeth Steffee, the conservation chairman of the Kissimmee Valley Audubon Society, said the pines were as important a link between past and present as any other tree, even massive oaks more than one hundred years old. ''Pine trees are more a part of Central Florida than any other tree,'' she said. ''To take pines out of the ordinance would be like cutting the heart out of the ordinance.''

The workshop allowed commissioners to put finishing touches on an ordinance that has been more than two years in the making. But it could undergo further revision after two public hearings to be scheduled during the next two months. The Audubon Society has been the impetus behind the ordinance. Its members expressed outrage two years ago when a shopping center site was cleared of trees crucial to environmental balance and, in some cases, history.

The ordinance would require developers to conduct surveys to identify protected trees. They could remove some of the trees, but if they do, they would have to compensate by planting a number of other trees according to a point-based formula.

The city ordinance would require developers to plot all trees of 4 inches or more in diameter.

The commission also rejected Commissioner Jimmy Wells suggestion that the ordinance should be stripped of language outlining protective measures for trees.

Wells said ensuring those measures were used would be a ''bureaucratic nightmare.''